


True to Yourself

by Papillionth



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bullying, F/M, Fluff, Trans Pepper Potts, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-22 12:12:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11967126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papillionth/pseuds/Papillionth
Summary: High school wasn't easy for most kids. High school was a little harder when your best friend has just told the entire school you're trans. Add on top of that the fact Tony Stark has decided to be your knight in iron armour and senior year becomes a bit of a mess. Pepper has tough choices ahead. Be true to herself and attend school as Virginia, or keep herself hidden away until college?





	1. Betrayal

**Author's Note:**

> CONTENT WARNING: Transphobia (slurs, violence and misgendering.) - Please do not read if these things will cause problems for you. 
> 
> I will be referring to Pepper with female pronouns throughout the story, except when people are addressing her in speech whilst she is still presenting to her school as male.

“What? You think you’re a girl? Freak.” One of Pepper’s usual tormenters spat in her face as they held her up against the lockers. This was not the way things were supposed to go, her school, they weren’t _ever_ supposed to find out. She thought she could trust Whitney; they’d been friends ever since kindergarten, after all. Turns out she’d been wrong about that.

But let’s rewind a little, to the day before Justin Hammer and his cronies had Pepper held up against a locker.

“Wait, Adam, what?” Whitney Stane, heiress, and Pepper’s closest confidant was staring at the redhead with a mixture of confusion and disgust. Pepper realised at this point she may have made a mistake telling Whitney how she was feeling. “I’m—Uh, no, ha! Fooled you?” She tried, but her hurt expression, and the way she seemed to be willing a hole to open in the floor was fooling nobody. Whitney rose from her chair, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Adam.” Whitney said quietly, “Don’t bother coming to sit with us at lunch.”

Pepper remained sitting for a while, she’d been expecting to cry more, she’d cried when she came out to Whitney, and whilst the fact Whitney had pushed her away _hurt_ , she’d somehow been expecting that. What she hadn’t expected was that Whitney would spread it around the whole school. Now everybody knew that Adam Potts wanted to be, no, was, Virginia Potts.

So that’s why Pepper found herself up against the locker.

“Get off of me, Justin.” Pepper forced out, glaring at her bully. He did let go of her, pushing her down to the floor. She took a sharp breath, not wanting to show any sign that Hammer had gotten to her, but didn’t make any move to stand. By now a small crowd had formed, you would think one of them would make a move to _help_ the girl, but everyone was scared of Justin, heir to Hammer Industries, he had a lot of sway in the school, and an awful personality to boot. He looked down on Pepper, laughing scornfully. She’d always been the target of his wrath, even before Whitney told the school she was trans; she wasn’t rich, she wasn’t ‘popular’, she was quiet and unassuming, and she didn’t take his shit. He hated that about people. “We all knew you were gay, but this?” He mimes a pair of scissors, laughing mockingly. How original. “Does it affect you, Justin, in any way?” Pepper began, rising to her feet, “Even if I was, which, by the way, I’m _not_ -“ she was cut off by a fist in her face, crying out and grabbing her nose, which was definitely bloody. “I didn’t say you could speak, faggot.” Justin spat. Great. Now she was going to explain to her parents why she got a bloody nose. Where was a teacher, anyway?!

Instead of replying Pepper turned to leave, wanting to at least clear her nose up in the bathroom before homeroom. But she was quickly realising things weren’t that simple. One of Hammer’s ‘friends’ stopped her in her tracks, she was pretty much surrounded. It was then that a male voice shouted, “Hey! What’s going on here?” A teacher at last? No. It was not a teacher. Justin’s friends moved away pretty quickly. “T-Tony?” Justin stammered out, “I was just teaching Adam a little lesson. He says he wants to be a girl. Fucked up, right?” he said braver than he was feeling. Pepper braced herself for _the Tony Stark_ to join in on the taunting, but was surprised when he shoved Justin out the way, putting his arm around the redhead. He was shorter up close. “No. It’s not fucked up, Hammer,” he growled, “The only thing fucked up is that all of you,” he gestured to the crowd around, “are letting him do this. Come on,” he spoke quietly to Pepper, “Let’s sort out your face.” 

This was _not_ the Tony Stark that Pepper had been expecting. The guy was famous, after all, and she’d seen his interviews. Hell – She knew how the head of the football team acted with basically _every_ single girl in the school. This Tony, who wasn’t even letting Pepper clean up her own face, was a contrast to her expectations already. “Uh, thanks, for back there.” The strawberry blonde said quietly, “You didn’t have to.”

“And what? Leave Justin to sic his friends on you?” He shook his head, and Pepper smiled gently. “I’m surprised he hit me. It’s not his style. He normally has other people do his dirty work for him,” she watched as the dark haired boy threw a bloody tissue into the trash.

“Yeah, well, next time? Punch him back. Or punch him first. Either works.” He chuckled, “What’s your name, anyway? You obviously already know who I am. Who doesn’t?” he winked at her, causing Pepper to raise an eyebrow. “Adam.” She said simply, “You’re Tony Stark, captain of the football team, heir to Stark Industries, oh, and you’ve been in my homeroom since sophomore year.” She continued, “Although I guess you don’t usually turn up to _that_.” Tony was a little taken aback by the sass that had just been directed at him, people usually were falling at his feet, he looked at her carefully. A clear fiery personality matched the orange glow of her hair, and the freckles dotting her face reminded him of one thing. “Well, Pepper, I guess from now on I’d better come to homeroom.”

She blinked. "Pepper?"

“Your freckles. And that sass earlier, was not expecting _that_. Pepper.” He turned to the door of the bathroom, making a move to leave, but Pepper called out in that moment, “Wait, Tony, what Justin said, I mean… You want to be seen with someone like that?” she braced herself for the inevitable rejection, and was surprised when he placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m Tony Stark; do you think I give two shits what the rest of this school thinks of me? Anyone who has a problem with you can come to me, but somehow, I’m thinking you could handle them yourself.” And with that he left the bathroom, Pepper following behind, unable to suppress the smile on her face.

When they walked into homeroom half an hour later Pepper was mortified, as if it wasn’t bad enough that all eyes were on her, chances are everyone had heard what happened earlier with Justin _and_ she was stood with Tony Stark. Luckily their teacher just ushered them to the only two vacant seats, as expected, side by side. When the bell rung, signalling that the class needed to head to second period, Tony turned to Pepper, “Come find me at lunch.”

Pepper stayed put for a moment. This year was going to be more interesting than she’d thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Classes were, as a whole, uneventful. It was almost the end of September, so everything was in full swing but nothing too important was going on, actually, if Pepper was being honest, classes were going too slowly. She wanted it to be lunchtime already, Tony had asked her to come and find him after all.  
Having finished the maths problems set by their teacher before the period ended Pepper began to think on the way the day had already played out, it wasn’t what she’d ever imagined, after all her secret was never supposed to come out. Whitney had made a vague threat towards her about not sitting with them at lunch, but who was she? Regina George? The redhead was definitely hurt, and very angry at Whitney for what she’d done, but she wasn’t going to bark up that tree just yet, she needed time to get over her best friends betrayal.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when the bell rang, signalling that it was time for third period, Pepper made her way to the art labs, excited for art history, it was one of her favourite subjects and she planned to minor in it once she got to university. As expected, the period whizzed by, Pepper lost in the culture and art that her teacher was discussing, finding herself able to forget just for a moment the thoughts that were probably at the back of the minds of many of her classmates and people in the school.  
Then the bell rang. Pepper collected up her things, making her way out of the classroom and starting down the hall. “There you are!” She heard, feeling a hand on her shoulder. Pepper jumped, spinning around to face whoever had just accosted her in the hallway, eyes widening when she saw it was Tony Stark. “Tony?” Pepper questioned, “What are you…? How did you know what class I was in?” He simply laughed, tapping a finger on his nose, “I’m Tony Stark, I know everything.” He winked at the redhead, “Now come on, I said to find me at lunch, didn’t I? I’ve got a few people I want you to meet.” And with that he began to walk, Pepper hurrying after him, matching his pace. The duo walked into the cafeteria, Pepper not even sparing a glance at the daughter of Obadiah Stane when they walked past her table. The girl had been surprised when the table Tony took her to only had two other people on it, seeing as Tony was, well, Tony, she assumed he’d sit with a great number of people. 

“Pepper, this is Rhodey,” a boy, who Pepper recognised as James Rhodes, a teammate of Tony’s on the football team, raised his hand in greeting, his focus more on what looked to be some kind of miniature robot fight between him and the other guy at the table. “And this,” Tony gestured to the bulky man sat opposite Rhodey, “is Happy Hogan.” She smiled at him when he turned to greet her, vaguely knowing of him from her art history class. Happy groaned however, as turning away caused him to lose track of the fight he was having with Rhodey, and he watched in despair and his robot fell sideways on the table top. Tony laughed, patting his head, “Don’t worry man, I’ll make you another one.” And Pepper found herself again surprised by Tony Stark. Sure, she knew his father ran Stark Industries, and that Tony was very intelligent, but to just make robots in his spare time? That wasn’t the usual hobby for someone of his age.

“Anyway, boys,” he addressed the two at the table, “you can play with your toys later. This is Pepper Potts.” He paused, turning to Pepper, coming close to her face. “What pronouns should I use?” He whispered. She felt heat rise to her cheeks at his proximity, and the question, she hadn’t expected him to be so courteous towards her. “Uh,” Pepper began, glancing away from Tony, “I guess they, for now?” he nodded, and with that turned back to the table. “Pepper is going to be sitting with us from now on. They had a run in with Justin today, so, keep an eye on them if you can.” And then he pulled out a chair, patting it, a twinkle in his eye, and Pepper took a seat. Tony taking the chair opposite her. Pepper took her lunch from her bag, a simple chicken salad, and began to eat, watching the boys banter with one another. It was clear that the three were very close. After a short time of eating Rhodey turned to look at Pepper, a curious look in his eye. “Hey, Pepper, if you don’t mind my asking…” She put her fork down, looking over at him, a pit in her stomach as she guessed what question was coming, “Are the rumours about you true?” 

The freckled girl took a breath. Staring down at her salad. She felt a light kick on her ankle, and looked up to see Tony smiling encouragingly at her. She supposed Tony wouldn’t have brought her around people who would be nasty to her, and considering she’d basically confirmed Justin’s accusations to him when they were in the bathroom together, she looked back at Rhodey. “Yeah, yes, they are true. I’m trans.” 

There. She’d said it. She’d said the actual words. A weight immediately felt lifted, and she found herself smiling with Rhodey, Happy and Tony, who were all smiling supportively. “You know,” Rhodey replied, “you should think about coming to the Spectrum society.” A club for LGBTQ people and their allies, “all three of us go, so, you’d be in good company.” Happy nodded, and Pepper thought to herself. “I’ll consider it. They meet on Wednesday’s, right?”

Rhodey quickly confirmed it, and the rest of lunch went pretty smoothly. Pepper mostly watched the boys interact, but she felt like her experience wouldn’t be so awful now that her secret was in the open.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know where this is going beyond a few vague ideas, so bear with me. Tony (and the others) are probably horrifically ooc but you know that'll probably improve with time.  
> Being trans myself this was actually pretty hard to write but things will get better for Pepper and don't worry Justin will get what's coming to him (as will Whitney)


End file.
